MusiLLection

This short music piece of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was originally written as an add-on for the opera "The Tale of Tsar Saltan". The opera was first presented in Moscow in 1900 with a libretto based on a story by the great Russian poet Pushkin. The "Flight of the Bumblebee" accompanies a scene where the main character - a prince - transforms into a bumblebee. The unusual nature and pure descriptive qualities of this piece, inspired other musicians to make their own adaptations, usually for solo instruments. The popularity of this piece is in contrast to the rest of the almost forgotten opera music. A quick descending scale on the piano begins this perfect miniature portrait (in the adaptation for the piano). The opening measures o f the play serve not only as an introduction, but also set the stage - we hear the piano's attempts to mimic the buzz. From this point, the piano paints a vivid picture of the insect that its flying reminds, as much as no other, of the ...

Liszt composed three songs called Liebestraume (Dreams of Love). He transcribed them for piano in 1850, describing them as "nocturnes", in the manner and style of Chopin .  This third Liebestraume is one of the most beloved romantic compositions for solo piano. This famous pianistic composition begins with a flowing melody played on the substrate of a cellar accompanying grab of the left hand. After a repetition, the melody is driven to a more fervent escalation and follows a part with wonderful flow. The original melody reappears and its last fleeting notes bode well for the fond memory of a wonderful dream.

Berlioz excruciatingly edited his operas to be accepted by the Paris audience. Berlioz's music is primarily an expression of emotions, often at the expense of the "classical" form. He wanted his audience to experience the emotions he felt when he composed his works, rather than being impressed by the craftsmanship of his style. The result is an incredible and unique freedom of expression. Les Francs-juges (translated as "The Free Judges" or "The Judges of the Secret Court") wanted it to be his greatest work. Berlioz began composing it when he was just 23 years old and spent many years of preparing it, constantly reviewing it to be accepted in the Paris operas. In the end, by accepting being defeated, he has fragmented his work. The introduction is the most extensive part of what's left. The introduction does not lag behind in imposing or youthful momentum from the origina. He retains the eerie power of the terrible story of hero Lenor and his corr...

Polka is a dance of Czech origin and has a lively 2/4 rhythm. It appeared in the early 18th century in rural areas and then spread over the course of the century in Europe and America, about at the same time as the waltz. Very lively, the polka is characterized by a typical half step that closes every meter, giving the movement of the couple who dances it a graceful svelte. Very famous polkas of J.Strauss II are Tritsch-Tratsch and Pizzicato . An also well known polka is from Smetana's comic opera The Bartered Bride. Jaromir Weinberger's Polka from Schwanda, the Bagpiper is also a very well known polka. Polka's popularity declined in the early 1900s with the emergence of American dances at the rate of contrattempo. Polka howerer, retains a prominent place in the world repertoire.

Edvard Grieg with friends in Leipzig. 1843 Edvard Grieg was born in June in Bergen, Norway. 1859 Begins studying at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany. 1862 First public appearance with the Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 1 1864 Meets Rikard Nordaak, who radically changes his life. 1867 Marries his cousin Nina Hagerup. He founds the Norwegian Music Academy. 1870 Meets Franz Liszt in Rome. 1874 Ibsen asks him to write stage music for his play "Peer Gynt" . 1876 First performance of Peer Gynt . 1888 First interpretation of the Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 1894 PhD in Music from Cambridge University. 1898 Organizes the Norwegian Music Festival 1907 He dies in September in Bergen after a heart attact  Although he was buried with every honor from his grateful homeland, his ashes were buried in a niche on the mountain above Troldhaugen with no sign other than his name and his wife's.

Nicolas Poussin’s painting depicts spring, perfectly rendering the atmosphere of the season just like Vivaldi’s Four-Seasons music. I. Allegro "Springtime is upon us. The birds celebrate her return with festive song, and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes. Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven. Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more." “Spring has arrived and the birds welcome it by singing”,  Vivaldi  writes. The inaugural  Allegro  features a cool and cheerful melody. Soloists and violins mimic the singing of birds with trills. Some phrases bring to mind a stream and a gentle breeze, while a vigorous tremor, fast scales and a small rushing solo indicate a storm. II.  Largo e pianissimo sempre "On the flower strewn meadow, with leafy branches rustling overhead, the goat-heard sleeps, his faithful dog beside him." The second part,  Largo , which is a ...

The music of the Russian romantic composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , oversensitive, evokes the immediate emotion of the listener since they are often reflected in it - with rare immediacy and upretentious honesty - "episodes" of his turbulent life. Afailed marriage burdened him with guilt, from which he never managed to break free. But as it happens usually at that case, the pain proved to be a cause for stimulation of the composer's creative ideas. The tender melancholy and the restrained pessimism that redeem many of the pages of his music, are due not only to his Slavec chromosomes, but also to the frustrations he received during his life. He certainly did not turn his pain into joy. But he turned the pain into force, thanks to which he managed to resist the imperatives of his times, who wanted every expression of art to be subject to the rules of the Russian School. Tchaikovsky was indeed less Russian and more Western. And if his music was doubted while he was alive,...

An Italian term derived from the verb “ricercare” (I’m looking for), which is about an old kind of organic composition of free form, but with mainly a contrapuntal style and character. Also, the term might imply a search for contrapuntal processing, but this is just a hypothesis. The instruments to which ricercare are mainly dedicated are the lite, the organ, the clavecin and other keyboard instruments. Ricercare was used as an introductory piece that indicated the search for the tonality of the price that followed it. Ricercare was widespread in polyphonic form from the 16th century thanks to Marco Antonio Cavazzoni, Luzzasco Luzzaschi and Claudio Merulo, while the homophonic form thanks to A. and G.Gabrieli and preceded the fugue. However, the greatest artistic flourish of the ricercare observed in the 17th century with Girolamo Frescobaldi, followed by Alessandro Poglieti, Bernardo Pasquini, Johann Kaspar Kerll and Johann Jacob Froberger. The term was often used in the 29th century ...

A photo from the first performance of the opera  Porgy and Bess  in New York in 1935. Gershwin's unique attempt at opera, created a dizzying combination of classical drama and atmospheric jazz, which remains unsurpassed in contemporary music. Gershwin loved "black music" as they originally called jazz. Its pulsating rhythms reached the ears of the refined American white society in the early decades of the twentieth century. Gershwin felt that her pure energy lies in the soul of the American people. Many of the songs are deeply influenced by jazz, but his real ambition was to write a great black opera. Gershwin's attempt to introduce jazz to the opera combined two antidiametric musical genres. Already famous as a songwriter, in 1926, he realized that the material for this challenge was in the popular novel Porgy , which referred to the tragic love of a black beggar from Charleston, South Carolina. But it took eight years before he started composing, in collaboration w...

A smooth technical slide consisting of a quick pass from one note to another, touching the intermediate notes slightly (without exactly specifying their pitch). The term came from the Italian expression “portamento della voce” (“carriage of the voice”), which is in use in vocal music from the beginning of the 17th century. It is noted with a small line that connects the two notes among  which portamento is played. It is used in both vocal and music for string and wind instruments.

1786 Carl Maria von Weber was b orn on 18 November in Eutin, near Liebeck, North Germany. 1787-96 First musical lessons from his brother. His father forms the Weber Troupe. They start touring. 1796 He apprentices to Johann Peter Heuschkel. His mother gets sick in the town of  Hildburghausen. 1797 Settles in Salzburg and becomes a student of Michael Haydn. 1798 He publishes his first compositions, the Six Fughettas . His mother dies of tuberculosis. 1804 He becomes Music Director of the Breslau Theatre. 1806-07 He becomes private secretary, first of all, of The Duke Eugene of Karlsruhe and then, of Duke Frederick of Stuttgart. 1810 He is deported from Wurttemberg because of his father. 1810-13 Wanders in Germany. He is composing two clarinet concertos. 1813 Becomes Director of the Prague Opera. 1816 Takes over the Dresden Opera. 1817 Marries Caroline Brandt. 1821 Triumphant premiere of Singer in Berlin . 1823 He visits Vienna and meets Beethoven . His tuberculosis worsen...

Maracas (almost always used in a pair) is an important instrument of the Latin American orchestra. The distinctive rustling and soft rhythmic tone seem to represent the dancers' own movements. The first maracas (now known as shakers) were dried pumpkins, whose seeds rattled when they moved. Later, they emptied the pumpkins from their content, scraped them and filled them with larger seeds or gravel to improve the sound of the instrument. Pumpkins were often selected on the basis of their shape - the neck could be used as an organ handle. Maracas belong to the category of "empty rattles". They are among the oldest instruments and have been used for various purposes. They were associated with magec, used in religious ceremonies, as coordinators of the rhythm of dancers and more recently as rattles for babies. From Cuba The pumpkin rattle is their most widespread form. In places where pumplkins do not grow, the instrument is made from other materials. Ceramic versions are co...

Prayer to the Virgin Mary, consisting of two parts. The first part comes from the Gospel (Lukas 1,28 and 42) and the second part was added in the 13th century (at the end from “Santa Maria”). For this reason, the entire text is only set to music in a relatively late era. Mainly great composers of the polyphonic music of the 16th century (Joaquin des Prez, Orlando di Lasso, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Claudio Monteverdi and others) were enchanted by this prayer and they offered us wonderful compositions. The prayer returned to the pinnacle of its glory in 1800 when F.P.Schubert set Ave Maria to music: Also interesting is Gounaud’s Ave Maria, who was set to music according to the harmonious basis of a prelude of J.S.Bach.

Transcending the boundaries of the classical measure, Hector Berlioz was indifferent to the laws that defined in the first half of the 19th century the fine-sounding and musical beauty. It is therefore justified for his work to be challenged by his contemporaries. The retrospective effort to approach his music, reveals reform proposals fermented with transparent persuasiveness and disarming sincerity. The passion and the sensitivity that often defined the paths of his life spontaneously gush from his music. In his works we immediately trace the love of color and dramatic contrasts, original sounds and shadows, expressive ingredients that give imposing character and emerge miraculously through the pioneering and exciting orchestrations with wich he benefited his music. However, he so often resorted to exaggerations, which weakened the classical purity of his melodic findings. Besides of being a fiery romantic composer, Berlioz was also an intellectual. His excellent education and abili...